1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to three-dimensional imaging of a physical object, and in particular to a high-speed multi-line triangulation for three-dimensional digitization of a physical object.
2. Related Art
Imaging techniques provide a three-dimensional visualization of a physical object on a video terminal or monitor. The three-dimensional visualization may illustrate surface characteristics of the physical object. Data associated with the surface characteristics are generated and processed by a processor to generate the three-dimensional visualization.
Data associated with the surface characteristics are generated by capturing images of the object from various perspectives. The perspectives are mapped or combined to produce a set of data points that represent the various surfaces of the object. The data points are processed to generate the three-dimensional visual display of the object. The data points also may be processed to represent the object in a dimensionally correct manner in the computer. However, the time to generate the data points is longer than the display rate for the digital camera.
Imaging systems that use a triangulation technique emanate a single point or a single line on the object to determine relative surface characteristics of the object. Multiple line systems are limited by the maximum number of simultaneous lines that may image the object and require a large number of images to obtain a final image of the object.
A Moiré technique may use multiple lines to compute a relative height map of the surface characteristics. Each point has a known or predetermined relative relationship to a neighboring point on a neighboring line. A sinusoidal variation of the lines provides a trigonometric solution to estimate the relative relationships or equivalently extracting the phase. Such technique requires either multiple images or substantial processing time to provide a three-dimensional image.
Accordingly, there is a need for a high-speed three dimensional imaging system that minimizes the number of images and amount of computation to provide a three-dimensional image.